This weeks Literary Ledger 2 to 9 January 2026

Welcome to your weekly roundup of all things books! We’re keeping it short and sweet, just five stories to keep you in the loop without overwhelming you. Think of this as your quick fix for staying connected to the book world.

I) From Page to Screen: People We Meet on Vacation Hits Netflix

People We Meet on Vacation, the film adaptation, was released today on Netflix. The book was written by acclaimed romance author Emily Henry and is also known by its British title, You and Me on Vacation. I’m very excited for this film, which stars Emily Bader (playing Poppy Wright), best known for her lead role in My Lady Jane, and Tom Blyth (playing Alex Nilsen), most known for his role as a young President Snow in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (a prequel to The Hunger Games series).

I haven’t seen it yet, I’m waiting to watch it with my friend, à la sleepover (the only right way). I was surprised when I realised it was being released in the dead of winter, after Christmas, when everything feels slow and a bit sad post–New Year. This feels like such a summer release, no? Or maybe it was tactical, getting us to look forward to better times and forget our troubles. Yes. That’s it.

Anyway, out of curiosity, I read a Guardian review of it, and it didn’t look good: 2/5 stars! Now, of course, I shall watch it anyway and not be dissuaded, since I enjoyed the book. Benjamin Lee said:

“The adaptation of Emily Henry’s much-loved 2021 novel has the superficial trappings all in check (eyes with permanent twinkles, unrealistic main character job in this climate, more easily affordable Taylor Swift song on the soundtrack) but no heart or soul to go with it.”

Yes, it does feel a bit like the beloved romcom When Harry Met Sally (they even meet the same way), but according to Lee, the film misses the depth that WHMS pulled off effortlessly, and he feels it flopped like most recent romcoms after the early–mid 2000s.

It’s a shame to hear, but I’m still excited! I love a romcom, even if it’s cheesy and cliché. Of course, we want something original and high-quality, but this is following the plot of a book, so creative freedom might be limited. The truth is, some books just don’t work as movies, though honestly, I find it hard to believe that about a romcom. They’re probably the easiest to adapt, or at least I thought so. 

II) David Walliams’ Book Sales Plummet Amid Controversy

Unsurprisingly, sales of David Walliams’ books have fallen sharply, down about 30% overall in the last two weeks of 2025, and 19% compared with the same period in 2024. That’s roughly 15,000 fewer units sold.

Of course, this follows HarperCollins ending its relationship with Walliams due to an investigation into allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards junior women in the company. We’ve been covering this story for the past three weeks, and I’m curious whether we’ll hear more or if both sides hope it quietly fades away. Walliams is taking legal advice, which could mean something, but no public lawsuit has been filed.

III) Robots Can’t Write Humanity

This hasn’t been a massive story, but it’s something I’ve noticed in my research, and it needs to be spoken about. AI – and I worry I’ll be talking about this for a long time as this blog continues – isn’t going anywhere. I know AI is valuable, it does amazing things, and it’s propelling us through advancements at a crazy rate, especially in STEM, something people could technically live without.

But as John Keating said:

“And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.” 

We don’t know what extreme AI involvement in the humanities or arts could mean, and frankly, it has no place there. If the humanities and arts are about being human, then let humans be the ones creating them. Not AI. At least, not when it comes to replacing the roles of creatives or taking jobs. Sure, there are tedious, repetitive tasks that AI can handle, and that’s fine, but letting it take over things that should only be touched by humans? That’s just wrong.

I was inspired to rant about this after seeing that HarperCollins’ French division, which publishes Harlequin romance novels, is experimenting with AI-assisted translation tools as part of its process for translating English-language books into French, and blaming it on declining sales.

Similar announcements have been made by other publishers, including the UK-based Taylor & Francis. Another example I came across was publishing software provider Trilogy, which launched Manuscript AI, a tool that uses AI to evaluate unsolicited manuscripts and help analyse slush piles for commissioning editors and literary agents. Once again, this can’t be foolproof. So far, it’s been set to analyse four key areas:

• Sales Potential: Estimates how commercially successful a manuscript might be on a 0–100 scale by comparing it with bestselling books in the same genre from the past 20 years.

• Predicted Rating: Forecasts likely reader satisfaction on a 1–5 star scale by analysing similarities to books with known Amazon and Goodreads ratings.

• Genre Fit: Checks whether the manuscript’s content genuinely matches its stated genre, flagging major mismatches.

• Style Fit: Assesses writing style (such as pacing, sentence structure, tone, and dialogue) to see how well it aligns with what typically works in that genre.

  
  

This is ludicrous. Using other novels to judge a new, up-and-coming one? We need originality, not the same spiel repeated over and over just because it sold well once. Think of the books that belong to a genre yet stand out boldly, pushing boundaries and redefining literature itself.

Some of these tools claim to use a scale of 0-100, how can you really rate a book on a 0–100 scale? Art is subjective! Sure, ratings are fine for a review or a book club, but for sales? How can a robot tell a human what they will enjoy based purely on numbers?

Take a book like Ulysses, which experiments with a dozen new ways of writing prose fiction that no one had tried before. Do you think that would get past the robot? I’ll give you a hint: no. To a robot, it would just look like a mess. And assessing writing style, how can you fit tone or dialogue neatly into a genre? How can anything truly new be created when it's measured against works in past 20 years? ARGH. I’m lost for words.

IV) Reality TV: The New Marketing Genius? 

Now, for a less serious piece of news: Harriet Tyce, an author recently featured on the new season of Traitors, who has published bestsellers such as Blood Orange (2019) and The Lies You Told (2020), has seen her crime novel sales nearly double since appearing on the show, rising by around 95.6% week-on-week. The growth has been driven mainly by her latest book, A Lesson in Cruelty (2024).

So there you have it, authors: if you want to boost your sales, maybe all you need to do is join Traitors… or any reality TV show for that matter. I do wonder if Love Island is open to aspiring authors, granted, they’d wear bikinis and trunks as part of the deal and perform raunchy tasks for 3–6 million live viewers. It’s a tough world out there.

V)  Movie Boosts Book Sales

Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid had an impressive first week of the year, with around £377,126 in sales and 74,862 copies sold, a jump of 146.1% compared with the same week in 2025. This surge is, of course, thanks to the release of the film adaptation on 22 December, starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, which I also want to watch… After I’ve read the book (priorities). I feel like a thriller is one of the only types of books you really can’t watch the film of first. I mean, it ruins any reading experience, but especially in thrillers. No faking being shocked for that one.